


all we see is sky

by marryingthebed



Category: Dear Evan Hansen - Pasek & Paul/Levenson
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Childhood Friends, Crushes, M/M, Pining, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-01
Updated: 2017-04-02
Packaged: 2018-10-13 14:21:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10515516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marryingthebed/pseuds/marryingthebed
Summary: Jared's had a year at college to settle down, make friends, and get over the complete shit-show that was his senior year--specifically, the complete shit-show that was his doomed crush on Evan Hansen, asshole straight boy extraordinaire. But when Evan transfers to Jared's school, new questions arise....Like, can Jared ever really forgive Evan? Can Evan ever really forgive Jared? Will Alana become the first-ever sophomore elected class president? Why is every building on campus so haunted? And...is Evan...possibly...not straight?





	1. Chapter 1

Look: Jared Kleinman has his life together. He does! Seriously, he does. He ended freshman year at his favorite safety school with a very respectable 3.8 GPA, a good group of friends, several new sexual experiences under his belt (ha!), and even an on-campus job. Objectively, Jared Kleinman is killing it.

As he pulls up to his new dorm for the year (yeah, ok, his application for the apartments had been rejected, but hey, Forster is supposedly the second-nicest residence hall on campus), his phone rings. He doesn't bother to check the ID--Alana's the only person that ever calls him any more ("Text messages can be ignored, Jared. Calls demand an immediate response."). 

"Alana Beck, as I live and breathe. You here yet?"

"I've been here for the past two weeks, jerk."

"Okay, duh. I mean are you at Forster yet?" Parking is an absolute nightmare, the lot filled with parents and suitcases and trucks and folded-up butterfly chairs. It's about a thousand times more chill than freshman move-in day though, which is nice. Jared sighs, accepting that if he wants to get out of this car and into his room sometime this century, he's gonna have to go to the upper lot. Whatever, maybe the exercise'll be good for him. He has his life together now, and people with their lives together are healthy and work out and are super buff. Maybe this year he'll get super buff...

"No, training just got out. I'm walking over now, though. What's your room number again?"

"223." His parking spot is approximately five thousand miles from Forster. Whatever, as he said before: super buff. 

"Cool. Oh, Jessica's your RA, you'll like her."

"Is she a snitch?"

He can practically hear Alana rolling her eyes. "Ha ha, asshole. I'll be there in a second."

"You might get there before me, then. I'm parked so fucking far I'm about to apply for off-campus housing."

"I can come help?"

He looks back at his stuffed-to-the-brim backseat. "Maybe later. I can get the first load of stuff myself. Need to work on my muscles, you know."

Alana laughs. "Oh, right, of course."

"Just you fucking wait, alright, by the end of the semester I'm gonna at least be an otter, if not a bear." 

"Good luck with that. Ok, I'm at the T. See you soon!"

"See you," Jared says, and hangs up. Okay. Muscle time. He selects the first load of stuff to carry up carefully: first suitcase of clothes, his laptop bag, and a box of books. Totally reasonable. Totally doable. He is totally, one hundred percent not making a mistake right now. 

He's made a mistake. When they meet outside of Forster 223, Alana is looking as perfect as usual: braids pulled up in a neat ponytail, sun dress unwrinkled, ever-present backpack in hand. Jared, meanwhile, feels like a sweat monster that's just dragged itself up from the depths of hell. 

Alana takes one look at him and says "Well, are you a bear yet?"

"Very close. Could you hold this for me?" Before she has time to respond, Jared shoves the box at her and starts looking for his key. He finds it, and the door swings open. 

His new room is nice. Nicer than his freshman dorm, which had been cramped, sunless, and, most tragically, a double, complete with an annoying jock of a roommate who never did his laundry and (more importantly) never laughed at Jared's jokes. This year he has a single, and a nice one at that. It has the same furniture as every other room in this building--bed, desk, chair, dresser, shelf--but it also has a huge set of windows that sunlight is currently blaring through. 

Alana steps inside, placing the box of books on the desk. "Not bad. I mean, anything would be an improvement from last year--"

"Hell yeah it would. Can't believe last year didn't end with me murdering that asshole to death."

"There's still time. Apparently he's Courtney's resident this year. Oh, speaking of, I have to tell you something." 

Jared looks around at the blank walls, the bare bed, this impersonal space that he's planning on making home before the end of the day. "Can it wait until I'm unpacked?"

"It'll be quick, I swear."

"Fine." He sets his suitcase down and flops onto the new bed. The plastic-covered mattress is hard as a rock--he's glad he splurged on a new mattress pad this year. People who have their lives together have nice mattress pads. "Hit me with it."

"Well, you know how we got our rosters the other day?"

"What, is one of your residents the devil incarnate?"

"No--we'll debrief on my residents later. I overheard Jake and Tanya talking about theirs and Tanya was, well. I just got the tail-end of it, but she was bragging about one of her residents."

"Why? Who at this hell-school could possibly be worth bragging over?"

"She said that one of her residents was famous. Well, internet-famous. That they'd gone viral last year." Alana looks down, fiddling with the straps of her backpack. 

Jared's stomach twists. "Lots of people went viral last year." 

"Not lots of people in this area."

"Well, not everyone who goes here is from around here. It could be anyone--maybe, uh, maybe it's that damn Daniel kid." 

"I think he's still pretty young."

"Well, maybe Ellen worked her magic and got him to skip a couple grades."

"Jared--"

"It's not him, Alana. It can't be him." 

She sighs. "You're probably right. Lots of people are internet famous."

"Yeah. It's totally Chewbacca mom. That mask gave her a new lease on life, and now she's decided to quit her old job, abandon her kids, and attend a loser liberal arts college in the middle of nowhere." 

"I'm trying to think of other internet famous people, but I literally can't remember anyone. How are you so good at that?"

Jared snorts. "It's called being a loser, don't be too jealous. Also, really? No one? Not even the 'why you always lying' guy?" 

This starts them off on an in-depth discussion of the past few years' top memes, which lasts them all the way through the walk back to Jared's car for the second load of stuff. By the time they're carefully hauling his mini fridge across the parking lot, Jared's almost forgotten what brought about the conversation in the first place. 

Except he hasn't. Alana's worry lingers in the back of his mind, carries him through the rest of unpacking. As he tapes up posters and listens to Alana rave about the amazingness that was RA training, he lets himself give name to the fear: Evan Hansen. Family friend, classmate, liar, asshole, crush. Ex-crush. Ex-all of those things, actually, except liar and asshole. No, Evan Hansen wouldn't come here. He's probably off at some other college, wrecking other people's lives and jerking off to pictures of trees or something. Whatever. He doesn't think about Evan Hansen any more, he doesn't care about Evan Hansen any more, he doesn't, he doesn't--

"You okay, Jared? You're being a little, um, hard on the wall. I think the thumb tack's pretty in there by now" 

Jared looks at the thumb tack, so deeply embedded in the plaster that it'll probably still be there in the year 2100, when college students are laser-gluing holograms to their walls and Jared's preserved robot consciousness might finally be almost done with paying off his student loans. "Yeah. Yeah, sorry, you were saying? Ice breakers are super important because?"

Alana perks up. "Well, they're important for a variety of reasons, but I think when it comes to building community--" 

Yeah, no. Jared doesn't care about Evan Hansen any more. 

*

Here's the thing: falling in love with straight boys is always a mistake. Jared knows this now, has had the truth of it dug into his skin by several years of high school trauma and multiple cheesy gay YA novels. It's awful, it's embarrassing, everyone does it once and then they move on. 

When Jared fell in love with Evan, he hadn't known that he'd been falling in love with a straight boy. Hell, he hadn't even known that he'd been falling in love. He'd just thought it was normal, that every time Evan and his mom came over to his house for his parents' dinner parties he felt really, really happy, so happy that his cheeks got red and his stomach got all tingly. That he always wanted to please Evan, wanted to make him smile and laugh, wanted Evan to like him, really like him. The second Evan stepped into his house he'd be all over him, talking a mile a minute: "Hey Evan what's up what's up with you do you wanna play video games or maybe watch a movie we just got the new Spy Kids movie on DVD and it's in 3D too it's so cool we have glasses and everything well only one pair of glasses because I lost the other one but we can share or maybe you can have the glasses or if you don't wanna do that we can just--"

And Evan would blush, and mumble, and stammer, and eventually step back towards his mom, who would give his shoulder a squeeze and say to Jared "It's okay, hon, Evan's just a little shy. But that movie sounds fun, doesn't it sweetie?"

So they'd watch movies in the den while their parents drank wine and talked and were generally boring grown-ups upstairs. Sometimes Isabel would ask to watch the movie with them, and Jared hated that. He wanted it to be just him and Evan, no loser little sister required. But when it _was_ just him and Evan, things were so awkward. Sometimes Evan would say stuff, and it was always good stuff--like how 3D glasses make your vision uneven, or something like that, and that's why when Jared wore them over his regular glasses they gave him a headache. But mostly it was Jared talking to Evan, movie playing in the background be damned. And then it'd be time to for Evan to go home, and he'd awkwardly wave goodbye before heading back into his mom's waiting arms. 

Jared wished he could say the dinner party hangouts evolved as they got older, but that wasn't really the case. At age eleven, Jared was still rattling on at Evan about anything and everything, desperately hoping for a reaction from Evan. At first he wanted approval, affection, but as they got older he realized he'd take anything, any sign that Evan was paying attention to him at all. So he started aiming for other things. There was a whole year where he got super into insects, and spent every movie listing off the most disgusting insect facts he could think of. Every single time, Evan shuddered, made some sort of face--he was listening! He cared! 

At school it was different. In middle school they started eating lunch together, but it felt more out of necessity than anything else. Jared's glasses that year were round and gold, so every time he walked past the boys in their class they'd shriek the Harry Potter theme song at him and then call him a gay wizard, which was eventually shortened to the slightly-disgusting-sounding "gizard." He'd roll his eyes and say that he'd rather be a bird's stomach than an asswipe, but they wouldn't get it. Evan was their target as well, but he never fought back, and was thus considered kind of boring and not worth as much effort. 

So they'd sit and eat lunch together. Jared was over insects, choosing to dedicate his time to the school gossip mill instead. It was all so interesting--who liked who, who hated who, who like-liked who, and what they were all doing to each other because of it. One day he was telling Evan about how one of the boys in their class's acne made him look like a plague victim, and Evan had flinched. "Don't say that."

"Why not?"

"It's _mean_." 

Jared shrugged. "They're mean to me."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean you should, uh, you should stoop to their level." Evan wasn't looking at him, his eyes carefully trained on his turkey sandwich, which he was carefully ripping to shreds, but still. He was talking. He was caring. 

"Okay." 

And then they were thirteen. And when they were thirteen (shut up, he knows he's a late bloomer, whatever, he's made his peace with it), things changed. Evan didn't change--he stayed as shy and as awkward and as uninterested in Jared as always. But things definitely changed for Jared. He doesn't need to map it out--those awkward puberty videos everyone had to watch in 5th grade or whatever are probably enough of an explanation. 

Evan's mom started working different hours, so she suddenly couldn't pick Evan up from school any more. Jared's mom volunteered to give Evan rides home, which meant that what were usually peaceful car rides with Jared and his family, became, well, hell. 

See, Jared's mom drove a kind of crappy, kind of small car. She and Jared's older sister, Abbey, sat in the front seat, leaving Jared, his little sister Isabel, and Evan to share the backseat. Isabel got carsick, so she had to sit next to the window. And Jared's mom never would've made Evan, the guest, take the tiny middle seat, so that left it to...Jared.

Which meant that for ten minutes every day Jared was stuck in that miserable middle seat, pressed knee-to-hip-to-shoulder up against Evan Hansen. Evan Hansen, who smelled good, even when he was all gross and sweaty after a day at school. He didn't drown himself in Axe like all the other boys their age--he just smelled like whatever deodorant his mom probably bought for him. Everywhere their skin touched felt like it burned, a red-hot spark in Jared's stomach. Sometimes the car would take a sharp turn and Evan would sway against him, and that was even more dizzyingly good. The second they dropped Evan off and then got home themselves Jared would rush to his room, where he would furiously jerk off before starting his homework. Classy, right? Yeah, he was a romantic, thirteen-year-old Jared.

And yeah, there was the good ol' "Oh shit, am I gay?" crisis. It wasn't pretty. He'll never admit this now, but _Glee_ might've been involved. 

All he can remember of the summer between middle and high school was feeling hot all over. He wanted things, so badly that his whole body ached with it. He wanted to be older, he wanted to get away from his parents and his annoying sisters, he wanted his body to behave, to be better--and he wanted Evan. One day his family went to the beach and dragged Evan along with them, at his mother's request (apparently he'd spent the entire summer inside and she was starting to get worried). 

Jared had seen Evan, standing knee-deep in the water, the slant of his skinny shoulders, his smooth, freckled (slightly pimpled, but hey, so was Jared's) skin, and he'd just. Needed to do something. Something, or else the thing inside of him, the thing that ached and wanted, was going to explode. So he ran over, pushed Evan face-first into the ocean, and shouted "Loser!"

That sort of set the tone for their high school relationship. 

By senior year, high school felt like a series of things he was unable to control. He couldn't control his grades, his family, his lack of friends, his appearance, the anger that was still tearing through his stomach. He couldn't control how much he still fucking wanted Evan, Evan who probably hated him, Evan who he didn't deserve. Stupid, perfect Evan who never got angry, who was a thousand times better than Jared could ever be. 

So he lied. Tried his best to hurt Evan, to goad him into any sort of a reaction, because if he did anything else it might end with something stupid, like Jared pushing Evan up against a locker and kissing him and kissing him and kissing him and...

Something stupid. 

And then Connor happened. And the emails, and the lies, and Zoe, and Evan wasn't perfect. Evan was a manipulative asshole, which made Jared a manipulative asshole, too, because he had helped, and God, the whole thing made him sick to his fucking stomach. So he'd cut it all out. Finished high school, started college, never looked back. Stayed friends with Alana, because she was the only person he knew at orientation and also because at least they know the truth about each other. About the terrible shit they'd done together. Done with Evan, who's gone, out of Connor's life, an embarrassing old fantasy that he doesn't care about any more, really, he swears. 

(Except sometimes? Sometimes he'll be walking past this cool old oak tree at the center of the campus, and he'll wish--

It doesn't matter). 

*

Unpacking takes up the better half of the afternoon--he's still not totally done when Piper texts the group chat to see if they all want to get dinner, but he is starving, so the rest of boxes will have to wait. They meet up at their favorite burrito place two blocks from campus, and he gets so caught up with seeing his friends again that he almost forgets about Evan Hansen entirely. Almost. 

When everyone's eaten their weight in beans, cheese, and guacamole, Clark sits back and lets out a giant belch. 

Alana wrinkles her nose. "You're disgusting."

"Aw, c'mon, you missed me."

"I missed this carne asada."

"And me!" Piper adds, reaching over and linking her and Alana's fingers together. "Didn't you miss me?"

Sadie groans. "Ok, I know y'all spent the summer apart and all, but please try to keep the gross relationship stuff to a minimum."

"All we're doing is holding hands!"

"Yeah, well, holding hands is the gateway PDA. Next thing you know, you'll be fucking in the fountain," Jared says. Piper and Alana are cute, definitely, but he's on Sadie's side here. Mostly because Sadie's side is funnier. 

The nice thing about their friend group is how chill it is, and how naturally it formed--Jared and Alana knew each other, obviously. Then Alana and Sadie were on student council together, and Jared met Clark through their Rhet Comp study group. They'd all gotten together for dinner one night, and liked each other so much that they just..kept getting dinner together. First semester their main focus had been teasing Alana for the obvious crush she was nursing on Piper, a girl in her Public Policy class. And then second semester Alana finally worked up the courage to ask Piper out, and she was added on to the group chat. It was all so painless--no desperate need for approval, no pushing each other, no lying. 

Piper sticks her tongue out at Jared. "Anyway, what're y'all's class schedules?"

Happy for a chance to brag, Jared says "Well, I got into Plant Ecology."

"Oh my god, you're ridiculous."

"Shut up, Clark, you're just jealous. Everyone says it's the easy science gen ed, so catch me staring at plants for a couple hours a week. It's better than some bio lab hell."

Sadie laughs. "You humanties assholes are so ridiculous."

"Oh, like STEM is so much better."

"Just wait 'til I'm lounging in my mansion--"

"Mansion? I'll probably be jealous of you if you just have a _house_."

The entire group bursts into laughter, Jared included. See? He's got kick-ass friends, a kick-ass room, a kick-ass schedule, and no Evan Hansen in sight. He's got his life together. 

They walk back to campus together, listening to Clark rant about how great his summer internship was. On their way over to Forster (Sadie and Piper live there too, and are eager to show off their new rooms), they catch the tail-end of some orientation thing, swarms of eager freshman streaming out of Baldwin Hall and onto the quad. And, God, Jared knows it's only been a year, but was he ever that small? And that annoying? There are some older-looking students also milling around, too, probably transfers or resumers. It makes things a bit hard to navigate, their friend group breaking up so that they can each wade through the crowd quickly by themselves. Someone slams into Jared, stepping down hard on his foot, and he loses it. "Fuck, watch where the fuck you're going, alright?"

"Sorry," the person says, quiet and careful, and Jared feels his breath catch in his throat. Because that voice--he whirls around, meets soft brown eyes. Soft, brown, _familiar_ eyes. 

And he has to laugh, he just has to, because it figures, doesn't it? Here he is, with his life together, a kick-ass year ahead of him, and who does he literally run into? Who's standing in front of him, in all his weird, awkward (beautiful, perfect) glory? 

"Hi, Jared," Evan says. 


	2. Chapter 2

There are plenty of worse things that running into your asshole first crush after consuming a burrito the size of your forearm. Aren't there? Jared's trying to think of some. There have to be. Nuclear war? Well, at least nuclear war would wipe away any trace of his existence. Oblivion is sounding pretty fucking sweet right now. 

The thing is? Evan looks _good_. His hair's a little more styled, a gray t-shirt replacing that old striped polo. But Jared looks down and, yep. The fingers of Evan's left hand are curled, anxiously twisting around each other. Same old Evan, with the same old fidgets. 

He wonders what he'd do if Evan was a stranger, just some new student that Jared happened to bump into. Flirt with him, probably. The fantasy hits him before he can stop it: he and Evan as total strangers, hooking up the night before the first day of school because they're young and they're idiots and they can get away with it. Taking Evan back to his new room, laughing and tripping over boxes, peeling him out of that t-shirt, biting and kissing his way down this new Evan's neck--

Right. No. Bad. 

Evan is looking at him. Waiting for him to say something, probably. First years are still streaming by them, talking excitedly about class schedules and hometowns and majors. He needs to say something. They can't just stay here, staring each other. Evan probably has another boring orientation event to get to, and Jared's friends are waiting for him. 

Evan is not Jared's friend. Evan was never Jared's friend. 

"Out of all the shitty liberal arts colleges in the world, you had to walk into mine?" And, fuck, he can do better than that, can't he? But it's too late, the words have slipped out, harsh and not-clever and not-funny and embarrassingly bitter. Why can't he be cool, calm, collected? Why can't he not care?

Evan frowns. "Jared, I--"

"Nope. No, I actually don't have to deal with this right now. Hi, Evan, not all that nice to see you. Bye, Evan." And then he walks away. Disappears into the crowd of cheerful freshmen, finds his friends on the other side. 

"Did some first years kidnap you or something?" Sadie asks.

He doesn't respond, just looks at Alana and says "You were right. Not a lot of people around here have gone viral." 

She sucks in a breath, nods. "Okay. Do you mind if we meet up with you all later? Jared and I need to talk."

Piper looks at the two of them. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, y'all are being hella cryptic," Clark adds. 

"It's fine," Jared says quickly. Never mind that he feels shaky, out-of-balance. "Just uh...ran into somebody we knew in high school. We'll fill you in later, promise." 

They split up, everyone else heading to Forster. Jared and Alana walk in the opposite direction, over to her dorm, where she swears she has an entire tub of Ben & Jerry's sitting in her freezer, just waiting to be shared. 

It turns out to be Phish Food, because that's just how his night is going. He takes the spoon Alana offers anyway, and digs in. 

She's had two weeks of RA training to unpack and decorate, so her room is already lived-in, neatly decorated with twinkle lights and family photos. Jared sits down on her perfectly-made bed, admiring the cute new floral-patterned sheets. Normally he'd tease her about how spotless everything is, but he knows the perfection is a sign of how anxious she is. And hell, right now? He's pretty fucking anxious, too. 

Evan Hansen. At their school. And not just any Evan Hansen, but some new-and-improved, Cute Boy 2.0 Evan Hansen, who wears nice t-shirts and goes to orientation events.

God, five seconds in and Jared's pathetic crush has already reared its ugly head. Whatever. Whatever! It doesn't matter. Sure, their school is kind of small, but it's not _that_ small--they'll probably barely ever see each other again. This is just a minor setback to his kick-ass year, easily dealt with through a night of ice cream and complaining with Alana. Right? 

He takes another bite of Phish Food. Damn, does he love ice cream. 

Alana settles on the bed next to him, smiling when he hands her the carton. "So..."

"So nothing. So you were right, Evan Hansen goes here, but it's fine, everything is fine."

"What'd he say to you? What'd you say to him?"

"Nothing. I--" Jared swallows, remembering what an idiot he made of himself. "I told him it wasn't nice to see him, and then I left. All he said was my name. Which, hey, good to know he still remembers that. Or, well, actually, no, it doesn't matter whether or not he remembers my name, because hopefully I'm never ever ever ever gonna have to see him again. This isn't that small a school, right?"

"Right," Alana says, but, considering she probably has the whole school roster memorized, it sounds kinda weak. 

"C'mon, it's not that small! Medium-sized. There are people that go here that I've probably never seen before in my life, and Evan'll be one of them. He has to be."

"Totally. And even if he isn't, we're all adults. We can handle this."

Alana hands him back the ice cream carton and they sit in silence for a second, considering. 

"Have you ever thought about transferring?" Jared asks. 

"Oh my god--"

"Just a thought, just a thought! We could do it together, y'know, and is there even really anything tying us here?"

"Uh, my girlfriend? Our entire group of friends? Our jobs? The fact that we like it here? Our good financial aid packages?"

"Haven't you always wanted to go to New Mexico? I've always wanted to go to New Mexico."

"Just last week you told me you hated the entire concept of deserts."

"I really think that secretly, deep down, I've always known I would really enjoy New Mexico. Santa Fe, maybe? Isn't that a place in New Mexico?"

"If we both transfer, we're just gonna be letting him ruin our lives _again_." 

Jared stops. Takes a deep breath. "He didn't ruin our lives. He ruined the Murphy's lives, and his own life, and we helped him."

Alana nods. "I know. But we can't let him have this power over us. Besides, we were here first. It's his job to move." 

"You're totally right, how do we force him to move?"

"Jared."

He sighs, spearing one of the half-melted chocolate fish with his spoon. "I know. It's just..."

"Stressful."

"Yeah. I mean, for a second, I felt like I was seventeen again. And not in the Zac Efron way." Seriously, it was pathetic--if all it takes is one look at Evan to turn him into a mess of closeted anger and desperation and weak jokes, then something needs to change. And that change needs to be Evan moving to Canada. No, not Canada, Canada is too nice and too close and someday Jared might be a rich, happy, healthy 40-year-old and his husband might say "Why don't we go to Canada, sweetie?" and he'll be so happy and healthy and rich and so in love with his husband (who maybe looks a lot like _Princess Bride_ era Cary Elwes) that he'll have totally forgotten that anything bad has ever happened to him, so he'll say yes, and then they'll run into Evan because Canada is probably the size of, like, a thimble, and then this will all happen all over again. Evan needs to move to Antartica. It'll be a rough transition for him, as there are no trees and no people's lives to ruin in Antartica, but Jared doesn't really care. The universe owes him a kick-ass, Evan Hansen-free year, and he's going to get one, dammit. 

"Okay, so, I know you're in Evan hell again--"

Jared pulls himself back from his anxiety-fueled fantasy. "Totally not, totally fine, everything is awesome, obviously."

"Ha ha, jerk. I know you're in Evan hell again, but," she bites her lip. "Remember how I said we'd debrief on my residents later?"

"Oh, yeah. How're the little first years?" Alana, in Jared's opinion, is the perfect choice for a freshman RA. Her mad organization skills and killer grades can serve as perfect #upperclassmaninspo for any aspiring overachievers, and her friendliness and openness will make the rest of the party-ready first years not want to disappoint her by breaking the rules and doing dumb shit. Honestly, a genius hiring choice on Res Life's part. 

"Well, I...also had a familiar name on my roster."

Jared scoffs. "Oh, come on, what is this? The CW? Are you about to tell me that I'm a werewolf, too?" 

"I thought you were a bear."

"Bears can be werewolves. Or wait, shit, I can be a werebear! Fuck, that's genius, an entire new gay subculture--"

"Jared, I love you, but can you please let me say this?" And, oh, right. Alana drama.

"Yeah, sorry, go for it. Tabling werebears for another day." 

"I don't really know how to say this, so I'm just gonna--yeah, I don't know. Um?"

Jared reaches over to give her non-ice-cream-holding hand a squeeze. "C'mon, spit it out. Can it be any worse than my bullshit?"

"Well...Zoe Murphy is one of my residents." 

Jared tries to remember what he knows about Zoe Murphy. He'd never really noticed her, until she became the object of Evan's affections, and then he'd...well, he'd hated her. Because, you know, Evan being straight in theory was one thing. Evan being straight in theory was manageable, because there was always the thought that maybe he was secretly gay, just closeting it up like Jared. But the way he looked at Zoe, well, nobody was that good of a fucking actor. Especially not Evan (oh, man, little did he fucking know). So high school Jared, who was nothing if not a bundle of cliches, had decided to hate her. When Evan and Zoe got together during all the Connor bullshit, his hatred of Zoe had twisted, mixed with a good dose of pity (because it sucks, knowing somebody else's relationship is based on a lie and not wanting to do anything about it because you're a liar, too, and you can't stand the idea of getting caught, everyone knowing the truth about how ugly you are) and self-hatred (because why couldn't he be her? She was a freaking junior, she was in jazz band, she had a dead asshole brother, and yet she was still apparently a thousand times better than anything he could ever be). 

Post-graduation, he'd treated his feelings for Zoe Murphy the same way he treated everything he'd felt at the time: he didn't think about them.

And then one night early in orientation week, he and Alana had sat down and talked. It had started out as a quick after-dinner hang, but slowly turned into a let's-stay-up-all-night-and-talk-shit-out sort of thing. They'd talked about a lot--everything that happened that previous year, mostly, including what they each saw as their respective roles in the situation with Evan, Connor, and the Murphys. There'd been a lot of things to confess, for both of them, but one of Alana's truly surprised him. 

In the middle of a conversation about the hellhole that had been the Connor Project, and whether the amount of people they'd supposedly helped outweighed all the harm they'd done to the Murphys, Alana had pulled back, shrunk in on herself. 

"Everything okay?" Jared had asked, which, duh, obviously it wasn't, they were recapping some of the shittiest things they've ever done. 

But she'd nodded, because that's just what Alana does. "My interest in the Connor Project...well, Evan was only half-right. It was definitely about extracurriculars, but there was also a part of me that really felt like what happened to Connor was wrong, okay? And there was also...part of me that just wanted a chance to get closer to Zoe."

"Wait, are you telling me you had a crush on Zoe Murphy, too?"

"God, I know, it was so shitty of me, I can't believe I--"

"No, Alana, it's okay. I mean, most of the reason why I was there was because of the big, dumb crush I had on Evan, so--"

"Wait, you had a crush on Evan?"

"Yeah, duh? I can't believe Zoe was apparently the only crush-worthy girl at our school. I mean, she was a junior. A _junior_."

"She was cute! And one time she went to GSA and said she was 'questioning.'" Alana paused. "Is Evan gay? Or actually bi, probably. Or pan?" 

"He's straight, because that whole thing just needed to be more pathetic. How'd you get into Zoe?"

"Well, you probably don't remember this, but first semester sophomore year I decided I wanted more arts-oriented extracurriculars and briefly joined jazz band."

"Oh my god, of course you did." What was it about jazz band? If Jared had known that that was where the action was, he would've ditched Spanish II a long time ago. 

She'd laughed. "Of course I did. I wasn't very good at it, and ended up sitting in the back, being miserable, for half the year. Zoe was new, too, and she was just so cute and so friendly, you know? And so talented, I'd just sit in the back and watch her play. I used to, ugh this is so embarrassing, but I used to imagine that she was in the back of the classroom during Speech and Debate, watching me and thinking I was good, too." 

It had been cute, a moment of brightness and honesty in the middle of rehashing all the bullshit of the past year. Funnily enough, their doomed crushes on Zoe and Evan just became another thing for them to bond over.  

And now Zoe and Evan are back. 

Alana is still just sitting there, fiddling with her spoon. God, how long has she been keeping this to herself? "Why didn't you tell me?" Jared asks. 

"I was going to earlier, it's just...you were so caught up in the stuff with Evan, I could tell it was bugging you."

"This is a way bigger deal than the stuff with Evan. I mean, she's your resident! Holy shit! You're in charge of her for the year! You're gonna have to, like, be the one to tell her not to smoke pot or drink beer or have loud, ball-slapping sex in her dorm!"

Alana wrinkles her nose. "Yeah, I'm not going to tell her that. What exactly is it that you think RAs do?"

"The point is, you're gonna have to interact with her. Don't they have any rules against this? A 'hey-when-I-was-in-high-school-I-helped-this-other-kid-scam-this-entire-girl's-family-so-maybe-can-someone-else-be-her-RA-please' get out of jail free card?" 

"Again, I'm glad you're working at the library." 

"Please, I'd be a killer RA. Do you want more ice cream, by the way? Sorry I've been hogging it."

"It's okay," she says, reaching for the carton. "I was just surprised, since you're usually so anti-Phish Food."

Jared snorts. "I'm not anti-Phish Food as a flavor, I'm anti-Phish the band as a concept, and thus by extension Phish _Food_ as a concept. It's still good. I love those stupid chocolate fish things." 

"You're ridiculous. Just because you said that, I'm gonna eat all of this," Alana says, waving the ice cream like it's some kind of prize. Which, full respect to Ben & Jerry's, it totally kinda is. 

"Hey, wait," Jared says, making a halfhearted attempt to get it back. Laughing, Alana dives out of the way, almost dropping the carton in the process. They fake-fight for a couple more seconds, but Jared doesn't really wanna move from his spot up against Alana's pile of pillows ("Why so many?" he'd asked her on move-in day last year. "They make me feel like I have my life together," she'd replied), so his heart's not really in it. 

The obvious victor, Alana raises the carton in a toast before scooping out another bite. "But seriously," she says. "How can I act professional around Zoe? She probably hates me." 

"I mean, hopefully she's like, moved on from the shittiness that was last year? Are you gonna talk to her about it?"

"Well, I did some research--"

Classic Alana. "Are you shitting me right now? What the hell did you google?" Jared tries to picture it--a Wikihow article titled "How to Confront Your Crush After Publishing Her Brother's (Fake) Suicide Note." Complete with terrible stock image art, maybe some guy making a sort of "welp" shrug at a funeral. 

"Just tips for RAs on how to deal with having a negative history with one of your residents. They all said I should acknowledge said history immediately, tell her I hope we can both be professionals and put the past behind us, apologize if necessary, and move on."

He leans forward to steal a spoonful of Phish Food, negative band connotations be damned. "So, that's what you're gonna do? Sounds healthy."

"Only you could make 'healthy' sound like a dirty word." 

"It's not a dirty word! Just..." Difficult? Unrealistic? Impossible? "Can you imagine actually doing that?"

Alana sets down the ice cream, leaning halfway off the bed so that she can grab her backpack from the floor. Out of that she pulls a bright pink planner with the words "I AM VERY BUSY" written across it in a bold font. "Well, I've made up a game plan." 

"Of course. Do you happen to also have a game plan for getting Evan to move to Antartica?" 

"Jared, I love you, but I think we'd need a lot more than Google and a planner to make that happen." 

*

The next morning Jared wakes up grateful that there's no such thing as an ice cream hangover. Together, he and Alana had spent the whole night polishing off that tub of Phish Food and going over her plan for talking to Zoe after her first hall meeting, which is scheduled for tonight. A few times Alana mentioned maybe trying to do something similar for Jared and Evan, but he'd shot that shit down immediately. He is never, ever going to see Evan Hansen's stupid attractive face ever again. 

Of course, what's the very first thing he sees when he walks into Plant Ecology, his very first class of the day? 

Evan Hansen's stupid, attractive face. 

Because his life just keeps getting better.

Really, he should've known. A dorky class like "Plant Ecology" that most people only take for the gen ed credits has Evan Hansen's name all over it. Hell, he's probably not even taking it for the gen ed, just for _fun_. Jared has a whole semester of listening to Evan geek out about trees to look forward to. Admittedly, he used to love when Evan talked about working at the orchard--it was so nice to see him excited about something for once. But if he kept talking about it for too long, Jared would start, well, feeling things. And not even normal, teenage boy, pants-tightening things. Cheesy things, like how Evan's eyes lit up when he was listing off tree facts like they were the most fascinating things in the world, and how Jared kind of wished Evan would take him to the orchard and show him all these dumb plants and they could just be together, and maybe on their walk back Evan would reach over and take Jared's hand. 

You know. Romantic bullshit like that. 

Evan hasn't seen him yet. He's sitting near the front of the class, like the overeager nerd that he is. Jared quickly grabs the seat furthest from him, at the very back of the room, right next to the door. Is it possible to share a class with someone and never have them see you? He could arrive right at 11 on the dot and always sit in this seat and never raise his hand and always leave five minutes early and pray Evan never turns around to check the clock? That's realistic, right? Because there is no way in hell he's switching out of this for some other ridiculously difficult science class. Seriously, the class Sadie took to cover their gen ed had a _Friday morning lab_. 

A plan is starting to form when the teacher decides to just burst into the room, loudly apologizing for her almost-lateness, a stack of books precariously balanced in her arms. Everyone, Evan included, immediately turns around to watch her come in. And what idiot just so happens to be sitting right next to her grand entrance? 

Jared and Evan's eyes meet. 

It isn't that big a deal, it isn't--it's not like time stops or anything. The teacher keeps apologizing, and then shoves a stack of syllabi at Jared and tells him to take one and pass them around. He looks away from Evan in order to smile, nod, and do what she tells him to do, because this is still the first day and he's not going to let some high school drama get in the way of making a good impression. Evan is still looking at him, he can feel it, his gaze makes Jared's skin warm, his hands just a little shaky as he flips through the syllabus. 

He wonders what Evan sees when he looks at him. Probably nothing. He definitely doesn't notice how much Jared's changed since high school--new glasses, new haircut, the tiniest sliver of some muscle definition (Alana swears she can't see it but she's a liar, he is on his way to being a bear, just you wait). 

The teacher's moved to the front of the classroom now, and seems to be hooking up her laptop to the projector, probably for some introductory Powerpoint. He tries to scan the syllabus, see what the requirements are, but the words blur and twist on the page. Is Evan still looking at him? 

A quick glance up, and then a sigh of relief. Evan's turned back around, seemingly engaged in watching the teacher's presentation slowly load. 

The rest of the class goes about as well as expected. Halfway through he texts Alana "EVAN HERE HELP." She, predictably, calls him. No help there. He shoves his phone into his pocket and goes back to trying to pay attention to the teacher, who is so into plants that it's actually kind of cute. She and Evan are going to get along great. 

Yeah, okay, he appreciates that Evan's sitting up front now, because it makes it a thousand times easier to stare at him and still kind of pay attention to the professor. Evan doesn't glance back at Jared again--instead he spends the class leaning forward, presumably totally engrossed in the lecture. When the professor (he thinks her name is Alice?) asks a question about the location of the world's oldest tree (something Jared has honestly never thought about), Evan answers it. 

And--shit, the clock must've hit 12:15, because everyone's packing up their stuff and heading out. He'd planned on making a quick exit but now here he is, all his shit still strewn across the tiny desk. He's shoving his notebook into his backpack when he hears someone say "Hey, Jared?"

Not someone. Evan. 

He's standing in front of Jared's desk, his left hand held close to his chest, fingers working nervously. And, fuck, Jared does not feel bad for this asshole, okay? He doesn't. So he starts packing up a little faster. "Hi. Did you not get the message yesterday?"

Evan laughs, a bit too loud and a bit too high. "Uh, no, yeah, I definitely got your message, I'm just, well, I guess I'm just ignoring it? Or, no, not ignoring it exactly, that's super rude, it's just that I really, really need to talk to you. Just once. Please, and then we can go back to ignoring each other or whatever it is you wanna do." 

And, fuck. This, right here? The way Evan can look so desperate and so hopeful and so earnest, all at the same time? This is what got Jared into this whole mess in the first place. 

Jared sighs. "Fine." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for the comments and kudos!!!! Y'all have been too kind, I literally expected 0 people to care about this so !!!! I'll respond to them individually soon. Also shout out to past me for thinking Ben Platt had brown eyes in the previous chapter...we'll just pretend...that wasn't a thing.
> 
> Also also, there will be more Evan and Zoe soon, pinky promise. Jared and Alana just needed to have a friend debrief before shit starts to happen


	3. Chapter 3

Evan lets out what seems like a huge breath of air. "Cool. Seriously, thank you so much, Jared, I know I--"

"Can we get this over with?" Jared knows he's being mean, but his chest feels like it's about to explode. He finally finished packing up, so he stands, confirming that Evan is still a couple of inches taller than him, damn it. Which, well, was that slight height difference the subject of several of Jared's high school fantasies? Yes. Should that be totally irrelevant right now? Yes. But now that he's thought about it, is Jared incapable of getting those images out of his head? ....Yes.

Non-fantasy Evan looks around at the couple of people still lingering in the classroom and frowns. "Yeah, but would you mind going somewhere else? I know it's kinda weird, but..."

Jared follows his gaze. "What, you don't wanna reveal your deepest darkest thoughts while those two girls in the corner freak out about the party they went to last weekend? Shocker." Evan doesn't say anything, so Jared lets it go. "Fine. I need to be over at Carson in like ten minutes, you can walk with me." 

"Great! Awesome. Um, I don't know campus all that well, so where is that, exactly?" 

Right. "It's another one of the freshman dorms, it's on the hill behind the music building."

He doesn't look any less confused. The girls behind them are still talking about that party, and Jared finds himself half-listening in, just for a distraction from the anxiety churning in his stomach. What the hell does Evan want? 

For them to get a move on, apparently. He's fidgeting more than ever, shifting his weight from foot to foot as his fingers twist. "Right, cool, do you wanna get started, I guess?"

"Yeah, let's go," Jared says. He heads out of the room, not bothering to check if Evan follows. 

He does, of course, appearing at Jared's elbow a second later at the top of the stairs. They walk down in silence, giving Jared plenty of time to admire the dirty carpet and banged-up handrail. This is one of the oldest buildings on campus, and it shows. 

It's only once they're at the first floor (and no, Jared is _not_ out of breath, he's a bear-in-the-making, okay?) that Evan starts talking again. And this is where the whole new, improved Evan 2.0 seems to come in. Because high school Evan? Couldn't have done any of this, Jared bets, especially pre-Connor high school Evan. He'd be a mess, stammering and fidgeting, his words tripping over themselves in a rush of anxiety and hormones. While this Evan is obviously nervous, he's still functioning--fidgeting and anxious, but still moving forward. "I wanted to apologize to you," he says. 

Which, what? 

Jared isn't exactly sure what he thought Evan was going to say to him ("Hey, fuck you for being such a dick to me in high school"? "Haha, remember when we helped ruin somebody's life"?) but that...is not it. Oh no, are they actually gonna have a _talk_ right now? Complete with shared feelings, sudden realizations, honesty, and maybe a couple tears? How horrifying. And, well, kind of impossible, because honesty would require Jared admitting that he's wanted to have Evan's adopted babies (wow, remember when he tried to make Evan read _Scott Pilgrim_?) since like the fifth grade. But nice try, Evan. Alana and her planner would be proud. 

"Okay," Jared says. 

Evan smiles, seemingly relieved. "Yeah? Okay, okay, let me do this. So, uh, I wanted to apologize, because, well, for a lot of reasons, but specifically because it was wrong of me to, to force you to lie like that, I mean it was wrong of me to get you involved in that whole mess in the first place, but then I tried to, like, bully you into staying, which was totally unfair, especially since I just ditched you, ditched everything for Zoe and the Murphys after a while."

It feels weird, hearing this now. Like someone's putting a bandage on a scrape that has already scabbed over. Overkill, maybe, but it's still...nice. To be worthy of an apology. 

Whatever. This is probably something his shrink's making him do. He still doesn't really care about Jared, he can't. He never has. 

But wow, somehow Jared still wants to make him feel better. "You didn't _force_ me," he blurts out. "Half the email stuff was my idea, anyway. We're both equally awful, I guess."

Evan shakes his head. "No, no, that's not true. I told the lie, I started the whole thing. You were just...being a friend."

That word twists something sharp way down deep in Jared's stomach. "I don't think profiting off some guy's death counts as being a friend." 

"Not the selling stuff part, but, um, the emails? Most of the Connor Project stuff? You helped me, even if it wasn't right."

How can Evan still have this power over him? A quick "sorry" and some nice words and Jared's heart is in his throat, his face too hot. He can't think like this, can't do anything except wait for Evan to say something else. To admit that this isn't real, that it's actually April 1 and Jared just forgot, to pull out a hidden camera and start laughing.

But Evan's face is serious, eyebrows scrunched together in concentration or worry. "It meant a lot. I know I probably...I _definitely_ didn't show how much it meant to me at the time, but, um, seriously? You were great. And..." He pauses, swallows hard, and, is Jared hallucinating or are Evan's cheeks starting to get a little pink? "Writing the emails together was really fun. I still, like, think about it sometimes." Yep, definitely blushing.

Which, well, how the hell to respond to that? There's, you know, the nice, normal, probably healthy option--"Hey Evan, I really liked writing the emails, too, I was mad in love with you at the time too haha wanna grab lunch or something?" But that's--too much. Too much, too fast, with too many things in it for Evan to laugh at or, even worse, freak out over and never talk to Jared again. Wait, does he want Evan to talk to him again? He definitely didn't at the beginning of this conversation, but now that Evan's here, freaking _blushing_ and apologizing all over the place...

None of these things are easily processable, so Jared, in what really is a Classic Jared Move, blurts out the first thing that comes to mind. "Oh, really? You, me, and my laptop, that one of your top ten fantasies?" 

Evan's reaction is instantaneous, the blush deepening, his shoulders pulling up. "Um, ha, wow, I, um, totally forgot how much you liked making jokes like that."

Fuck, he's screwed this up again. Maybe that's good? No, it isn't good, because Evan's slowed down a little, lagging behind, and all Jared can think about is how much he misses the way their shoulders were brushing up against each other just a second before. He stops, noting that they're almost at Alana's building, relieved when Evan stops, too. "Shit, sorry, sometimes I forget to stop being an asshole, well, maybe I just never stop being an asshole, fuck, Evan, really, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it." 

"It's fine. It was funny, really, you're always so funny." Evan digs the toe of his shoe into the dirt, moving around a couple of wood chips. "It's just that, like, could you maybe? I don't think it's funny to make jokes about, um, gay people."

Jared bursts out laughing. He can't help it, really. It's like the sheer ridiculousness of this, of him standing here with Evan the two of them apologizing to each other, has hit him all at once, with a side of _seriously_? He wants to grab Evan by the shoulders and scream "GAY PEOPLE? I WAS IN GAY LOVE WITH YOU FOR A MILLION YEARS, YOU FOOL," until both of them collapse from exhaustion or dehydration or whatever it is screaming people collapse from. 

Instead, what comes out his mouth is "Evan, I _am_ a gay people." Is it the best way he's ever come out to someone? No, that honor goes to that one time he walked into some annoying frat bro party and yelled "I'M HERE, I'M QUEER, WHERE'S THE BEER." Is it the worst way he's ever come out to someone? No, again, that title belongs to the first time he came out, ever, when he pretty much mumbled "I'mgayIguess," into his mom's shoulder before bursting into tears. Instead, this out-of-the-closet (a closet he didn't even know he was in!) moment ends up being a mix of the two: highly embarrassing and kinda funny. 

Too bad Evan isn't laughing. "Oh, wow, I'm sorry, that's--never mind, then."

Jared doesn't know what to say to that. Evan doesn't seem to know what to say, either, so now they're both just here. Looking at each other. Like fifteen feet from Alana's dorm. Jared hears a tiny clicking noise and looks down to see that Evan's fiddling with a silver ring on his right hand, making the center panel spin. 

C'mon Kleinman. Say something. Stop looking at his hands, long fingers with bitten nails that taper into strong wrists, wow, remember when you first noticed he had arm hair? You were maybe eleven, sitting in the basement, watching _Iron Man_ and you wanted to reach out and touch it, wrap your hands around the crook of his elbow and--

Say something. "Y'know, if you'd asked me how this conversation would go, I definitely wouldn't have guessed that it'd just be us apologizing to each other over and over again." 

Evan's hands still. Jared looks up to see that he's smiling, just a little, the blush not totally gone. "Yeah? How'd you think it was going to go?"

"Well, I wouldn't have just awkwardly come out to you--which, by the way, seriously? How could you not tell? I was so obvious." _About how huge a crush I had on you._

"I dunno. I guess I was...thinking about other stuff."

What the hell does that mean? "Other stuff? Like how totally cool I was and how badly you wanted to be my very best friend?"

"I mean," Evan shrugs. "Pretty much."

Jared laughs, hard and sharp. "What? Nah. I was an asshole to you, and also a complete nerd."

"I thought you were cool." 

"Evan, you did not think I was cool. I don't think my mom even thought I was cool back then." 

"Neither was I?" 

Jared always thought Evan was cool. "Yeah, not until--" Shit. Incredible, he's fucked up again. Is there some kind of award he can get?

But Evan nods, finishes the thought. "Not until I started lying. It's fine, you can say it." 

"Okay." And now they're just standing here, again. "Um, all right, well, Alana's dorm is right over there, so I should go?"

"Can I ask you something, first? I mean, uh, you don't have to say yes, I've already asked you a million things, so. Uh."

"Shoot." 

The clicking noise starts again, and sure enough, when Jared looks down, he sees that Evan's fiddling with that ring. "I was wondering...you don't have to say yes, obviously, just, um, I was wondering if maybe you wanted, totally up to you, of course, if you wanted to be friends? Or try being friends again? It's okay if you don't, more than okay, that actually makes way more sense than if you did..."

Evan keeps going, but Jared's pretty sure the second he heard the word "friends" his mind just went blank. 

Friends? Friends again? Were they friends before? Could they be friends? He tries to picture it--studying together in the library, inviting Evan along to Clark's weird art major parties, staying up 'til 4 a.m. eating ice cream and talking shit. Getting to hear Evan's laugh again, and listen to him geek out over trees and _Lord of the Rings_ and whatever else happened to be his obsession of the week. Evan not being a source of anxiety at all, just another thing making this kick-ass year a little more kick-ass. 

Wow, it's like he can feel his crush re-forming. It's been, what, two days, and already this shit starts happening? Pathetic. 

Evan is looking at him, Jared realizes. Waiting for his answer. An answer he 100% does not have. Because part of him? Wants to leap into Evan's arms and start singing showtunes. But the other part of him doesn't wanna get hurt again, especially by Evan 2.0. 

 "Um--" he starts to say, right when someone else goes "Hey?"

And, oh, look, it's Zoe Murphy. Makes sense, since they're standing right next to her dorm. 

Evan turns to her, smiles, and says "Hey," back. Doesn't look surprised. 

Right. Of course. Why would he be surprised. He and Zoe probably planned this out, went on college tours together, decided on this one because it was a great resource for both their majors, helped each other move in, made out on Zoe's creaky twin bed--

"Jared, right? I didn't know you went here." Zoe is smiling at him, in that weird, awkward way you smile at someone you vaguely remember from high school. How nice of her. 

Some sound climbs out of Jared's throat. Maybe it's a laugh? "Yep, I go here," he says, hyper aware of the space between him and Zoe, between him and Evan, between Zoe and Evan. Did they get back together? Can you get back together with the dude that lied to you about your dead brother? Well, apparently you can go to the same college, so maybe anything's fucking possible these days. "I go here, and, well, I'm going now. I promised Alana I'd meet her like five minutes ago. So."

Zoe's eyes widen. "Alana?"

"Yeah, Alana. She's your RA, I think?"

"Oh. Okay. Wow, uh, small world, right?"

"Very small. Welcome to the world of liberal arts colleges." He needs to get out of here. Right now. And maybe possibly fling himself into the sun? "So, uh, it's been real."

Jared's turning to go, almost home free, when Evan says "Hey, could you--it's fine if you don't have an answer for me." 

"Um, I don't. But I'll get back to you." 

Evan nods. "Cool. Can I have your number? Just, I mean, just in case you want to get back to me about it before the next Plant Ecology. You don't have to say yes." 

But Jared always says yes to Evan, so he pulls out his phone, watches Evan carefully punch in his contact information and then text himself so that he'll have Jared's number, too. Great. Awesome. Incredible. 

Evan hands back his phone, smiling. "Cool. Well, I'll see you around then?"

"Yeah, see you. Both of you, I guess. Um. Bye."

The walk over to the front door of Alana's building is especially nerve-wracking, considering that Zoe and Evan might be watching him do it. Halfway there he calls Alana. "Hey, I'm out front, can you let me in?"

"Be down in a sec! What took you so long?"

He laughs and hangs up. 

By the time Alana reaches the door, Piper in tow, Evan and Zoe are gone. Jared imagines them skipping off to their next class together, pinky fingers linked. Whatever.

The second the door opens he blurts out "You will _not_ believe the day I've had." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter up! I'm gonna try to post one every weekend, but finals are approaching so we'll have to see...
> 
> And Evan has a spinner ring! I really like the idea of him getting older and finding different tools to help him fidget, as it's p much what I've been doing lately.

**Author's Note:**

> So...yeah here's some deh fanfic. It's been a million years since I've written anything, but I just saw the bootleg and HAD to write this ridiculous thing. Updates should hopefully be pretty regular, although I'm also going to school and working so who knows. Bug me about it on tumblr @whitmanned


End file.
